After all, even back in the days of the steam-driven microprocessors that defined the era known as the Great Depression, our founder, Festus Pollstar, realized that music lovers would not be content upon reading the schedules for their favorite performers on their home computer monitors. New Yorkers wanted to be able to take the Bing Crosby itinerary with them on their daily subway commutes, while Lost Angelinos desired water-proof schedules for artists like Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey, so that they could keep up-to-date on the goings on of their favorite artists while hanging ten at Malibu.

Of course, your grandparents’ first personal tour-date players were much larger than today’s portable devices. Coal-driven, and often toxic, the personal itinerary readers of old required strong backs and thick heads to carry the 175-pound plus portable devices that concert fans strapped to their bodies each day so that they could enjoy concert schedules whenever the time and wherever they might be.

But history, like time, has a tendency to move forwards. Bing gave way to Sting, Frankie to The Jim Rose Circus, and fans of live entertainment demanded that the delivery and storage method for concert schedules, like the latest calendars for the Finn Brothers, the Eagles and Heart, keep pace with modern times. We became a “get-up-and-go” nation of concert fans. And, as everyone knows, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Fast forward to 2004 and you’ll find that today’s concert fans have a plethora of methods to transfer schedules for acts like Flickerstick and David Byrne to compact, handy electronic devices so that they may enjoy their favorite routings no matter where they might be. Yes, today you can read all your favorite schedules, from Aerosmith to ZZ Top, no matter where your travels might take you. Thanks to the wonders of science and the dynamics of a capitalistic society, you can now effortlessly transfer all your favorite dates, including the ones for Ekoostik Hookah, Jimmy Cliff and Brian Wilson, to your favorite portable device, and then gaze upon those dates as you ride the New York subways, surf the waves at Malibu, or do whatever the folks in the middle do to lighten up their daily drudgeries. Yes, it’s a great time to be alive. A time of tour dates that are accessible no matter where you are in this great nation.

That is, as long as you have a long enough extension cord. Or an extra lump of coal in your pocket. When it comes to tour dates, sometimes history just doesn’t move fast enough.